


Gone, But Not Forgotten

by ComicBooksBro



Series: The Ends of The Earth(s) [1]
Category: Avengers (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Angst, Blood, Character Death, Crazy Steve Rogers, Dimension Travel, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Multiverse, Not A Fix-It, Sort Of, Steve means well, Why Did I Write This?, more like a break-it tbh, steve is really screwed up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23311054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ComicBooksBro/pseuds/ComicBooksBro
Summary: Tony Stark was dead.Tony Stark was dead and Steve Rogers just couldn't accept that.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: The Ends of The Earth(s) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676386
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29
Collections: It will never get better





	Gone, But Not Forgotten

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! I finally wrote a backstory for my evil!steve from off the edge. (You don't need to read that one to understand this one) I hope you like it!

"Iron Man? Iron Man, report?"

***

"Iron Man?"

***

"Avengers, report: has anyone seen Iron Man?"

***

"Tony?"

***

"TONY?"

***

Steve knew immediately when he saw the body.

It was Iron Man, alright. Curled in the rubble of a collapsed building, blood dripping from his chest, his face, everywhere. His helmet was missing, or maybe just gone, and his face was covered in congealed blood from a deep slash on his forehead. His eyes were closed, the icy blue oasis gone, replaced by the dark red of dried blood. 

_No._

_Not now._

Steve covered his mouth with a gloved hand, the smell of worn leather temporarily replacing the copper tang that invaded his mouth.

_Not like this._

"S't-ve?" 

"Tony?"

He coughed.

Steve sprinted the last few feet to his fallen teammate, fighting back the urge to scream.

Tony wheezed, and his face twisted up in pain, but he made no effort to move; _punctured lung?_ Steve dropped down next to Tony, laid a hand on his shoulder, and shook him gently. No response. 

"Tony?"

Nothing.

"Shellhead?"

Silence.

"Tony _please_."

Blue eyes cracked open, just enough to see, and Steve's heart leapt into his throat. With what seemed a tremendous effort, Tony mumbled something unintelligible, and his eyes fell closed again.

"Tony?"

Silent as a crypt.

* * *

Steve watches the other Avengers carry the body off the battle field.

He watches them carry the coffin.

He watches it go in the ground.

 _Never again_ , Steve vows.

***

Everyone else seems to get over it pretty quickly, _he's died before, right? What's to stop him from coming back this time?_

At first, Steve takes comfort in that thought, but the more time passes, the less likely a return looks.

***

Steve doesn't know why it shocks him to hear that Tony left him something in his will. What really shocks him is that the will is being read this time.

Tony left him a flash drive. There were other things too, costume upgrades and the like, but the flash drive is a surprise. 

The first thing he does is plug it in.

A video pops up; it's Tony in his workshop, he looks nervous. His eyes are darting around, and he's fidgeting with a gear in his left hand. 

"If you're watching this, I'm probably dead," he pauses and laughs. "I've always wanted to say that." He's smiling now- it's so distinctly Tony that it hurts, and Steve can't help but sadly smile back. 

"Well, down to business, right? This probably won't matter to you, but there's something I want you to know." Tony stopped for a moment, and bit his lip, trying to think of the right words. "This is all ridiculous, and I know you won't care but I need to- if I haven't gotten around to telling you-" he breaks off into a nervous laugh again. "I love you, Steve. I just-" a sigh, "I'll go before I make it any worse."

The feed cuts the black.

_How long?_

Steve feels like screaming.

_HOW LONG?_

_I love you._

_I love you._

_I love you._

* * *

Steve is in the workshop in Avengers Mountain, a week post-confession. There's no reason for him to be there now, but he keeps coming anyway. Maybe he's looking for something. If he is, he doesn't know what. 

Regardless of the evidence, there has to be some way of getting Tony back; an AI backup, time travel, _anything_.

***

What Steve finds isn't exactly time travel, but it works.

***

Tony had been working on many things before he died, but one of them was a way to make dimensional travel easier. It might come as a shock to the general public, but the Avengers had met a good deal of dimension hoppers over the years, and needed a quick way to get them out of the way. Steve will never forget the chimp-vengers. Or the teenage versions of themselves. Or the pig-Spiderman. 

Safe to say, Tony had the right idea. 

Luckily, he had finished it before he died, and while they didn't have any out-of-universe people to test it on yet, it seemed to work well enough. It was designed to send a person back to where they came from, not send a person from their home universe to another one. It could do that, but there was no guarantee where you'd end up; luckily, the return trip always went swimmingly. 

* * *

The return trip did not go swimmingly. 

This Tony fought him the whole way- tried to bite him once. Unfortunately, this is when Steve learned that sedation doesn't work in every universe.

He escaped quickly.

they all did.

***

By now the other Avengers had mostly taken to staying out of Steve's way.

It was almost like- were they scared?

Why?

***

It would be easier if he could break a leg, or an arm, but Steve would never hurt Tony. 

Why didn't they understand that?

He was only trying to protect them. 

***

He was doing the right thing, right?

Tony would understand.

Right?

**Author's Note:**

> Well... that came out darker than I expected. I hope you liked it!  
> I've also got a third part planned, set after this one and off the edge. Hopefully I can get it out soon.  
> :)


End file.
